Miata 1.8L --> 411 Wagon

[MikeRL411]

1 hour ago, Datsunscom said:

So, no wipers or heater?

 

All too common with m410 and 411 engine swaps.  Also note that the drain tubes for the rain catch had to be cut.  Rain water will leak on to the rear of the engine. Not enough meat left to attach drain hose to road.

Edited December 15, 2020 by MikeRL411
typo

[jfbrink]

@Datsunscom - Well, I'm not finished, yet. I am actually pretty judge-y about engine swaps that don't bother with the heater and hot rods (or cars of any kind) without wipers, so it's a bit of a sore point for me that I haven't been able to get around to these two items, yet. 

 

No wipers because I don't have a good set of the cast pot metal stands/surrounds that sit on the cowl. If anyone has a pair they are willing to sell, please let me know. But, the stock motor on the stock mounting plate will fit fine. I just need to make a removable tab to take the two lower mount screws. The stock tab that was welded to the firewall got in the way when moving the engine in and out. 

 

No heater because I am building a custom heater/air conditioning setup for the car. This involves a blower box from a Geo Metro that I've already modified and mounted under the stock heater air intake and a metal box to hold the heater core and AC evaporator, along with a defrost/room flapper. I've designed the box and built in in cardboard, but I moved to a new house before I could fabricate it, and it will be months before my workshop is usable again. 

 

I'm pretty bummed because when I drove the car to the exhaust shop, and it was so quick and smooth. A delight. But, when I went to pick it up, the ignition switch was broken, there was a massive vacuum leak that I can't locate, the entire brake pedal had fallen off and the shifter mechanism was totally jacked. This is the fifth engine swap I have taken to this shop, and I like their work, but this time around was a disaster. Thanks to the move, I haven't had the time or the space to deal with any of these issues. Such a drag. 

 

Best,

 

Jesse.

 

 

[jfbrink]

 

@MikeRL411 - Still thinking through what my solution to the cowl drains will be. I was able to retain them in previous swaps, but this engine was just a tad too long. 

[MikeRL411]

On 12/15/2020 at 5:38 PM, jfbrink said:

 

@MikeRL411 - Still thinking through what my solution to the cowl drains will be. I was able to retain them in previous swaps, but this engine was just a tad too long. 

 

Good thing about the 410 and 411, you can remove 2 screws and fully access the cowl drain interior.

[Lockleaf]

Thats a bummer to hear that an exhaust shop managed to jack the car up that much just install some bent pipes.

 

I agree with you on heaters and wipers.  I also get judgey about swaps that don't retain at least basic necessities.  I always feel like they just didn't try hard enough.

[jfbrink]

 

I've managed to fix everything that went wrong at the exhaust shop, except for the shift linkage. I still don't understand what happened, but since I'm the only one who drives the car, I am fine to shift to N for R and L for D until I have a chunk of time to dig into the problem. I'm driving it daily, even though the decayed hatch seal fills the car with exhaust. 

 

It looks like I'll need to rethink my A/C condenser location. Putting it in front of the radiator really limited my fan options; there is just no space up front. And one 12" fan with no shroud can hold temperature steady, but the fan never shuts off once the thermostat fully opens. I think I'll have to go with two little condensers set down low near the sway bar. 

 

Jesse.